segunda-feira, 5 de abril de 2010

Let there be peace

One of the discoveries I liked most in the last month is by poet Lemn Sissay, South Bank Artist in Residence. I first heard of him in early 2009, during a photographic exhibition about poets in the National Portrait Gallery. Well, anything that comes from Ethiopia, where Lemn Sissay was born in 1967, calls my attention, but his "Love Poem" which was featured along with his portrait by Madeleine Waller captivated me even more:

"You remind meDefine meIncline me

If you diedI'd"

Here is the first poem of his book "Listener", which can be also read as a song, "(...) his poems are songs of the street", according to the Independent newspaper:

Let There be Peace

"Let there be peaceSo frowns fly away like albatrossAnd skeletons foxtrot from cupboards;So war correspondents become travel show presentersAnd magpies bring back lost property,Children, engagement rings, broken things.

Let there be peaceSo storms can go out to sea to beAngry and return to me calm;So the broken can rise and dance in the hospitals.Let the aged Ethiopian man in the grey block of flatsPeer through his window and see Addis before himSo his thrilled outstretched arms become framesFor his dreams.

Let there be peace.Let tears evaporate to form clouds, cleanse themselvesAnd fall into reservoirs of drinking water.Let harsh memories burst into fireworks that meltIn the dark pupils of a child's eyesAnd disappear like shoals of darting silver fish.And let the waves reach the shore with aShhhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhhhh."